Thursday, July 8, 2010

Impertinent Observations

Some readers may remember that I sent an "open letter" to all nine members of the Clarke County Board of Education concerning the Clarke County School District’s FY 2011 budget and its spending practices over the years (see a couple of posts below). The letter also went to the District’s superintendent, associate superintendent, and business services director (in the case of the latter two, they are the folks who make the presentations at the District’s legally-mandated TBOR hearings).

The letter was sent as a PDF attachment to an explanatory email message a couple of weeks ago. As of this morning, I have yet to get so much as an acknowledgement of my letter from any of them, much less any response as to its content. And they wonder why folks do not show up at budget hearings (for the record, I did attend the first one at Gaines Elementary School). Not that public input makes a damned bit of difference, mind you. Also, the per pupil spending amount given on the “Facts and Figures” page of the District’s web site still indicates the outdated figure from FY 2008. The most recent figure available dates from FY 2009 and has been available from the Georgia Department of Education since last December. Some readers may also remember that the use of outdated figures caused something of a minor controversy (initiated primarily by me and resulting in immediate changes to and deletions from the District's web site) during the last election campaign – and absolutely nothing has changed.

Some readers may finally remember that I noted the partial demolition of the abandoned Fire Station No. 6 almost two months ago. The engine bay was quickly dismantled and carted off, with the resulting exposed portion of the remaining structure being covered with a green tarp. Since then, nothing of consequence has happened at the site. And there still has been not a peep from the Unified Government as to what is transpiring there.

Sphere: Related Content

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No doubt the 'real' mover and shaker "story" is the impact the ABH's editorial had on would-be candidates for the BOE: If no one would have come forward we'd have had open slots and/or even more unopposed candidates.

No doubt the liberals believe this is another endorsement of 'democracy' and proves 'our system is better than theirs, etc. ...'

On the other hand, it's really another endorsement of the BOE status quo ... a BOE that has truly under-served the kids in the District and gravely imperiled the future fiscal soundness of the District.

What is even the point of throwing up ones hands but to say things are not as bad as they could be, yet?!

Essentially the elected BOE's here and everywhere came into being just before being swept-up in the housing bubble tsunami revenue windfall; and have prided themselves not on school productivity but rather on their ability to make the money disappear before folks began asking questions ...

As you say, not much the public does or says will make a difference and these newbies are unlikely to know what's wrong with the system and will be completely captured by the ACC BOE hubris and completely ineffective.

The BEST we can hope for, it would seem, is to see a complete collapse in confidence of the elected BOE. This could provide an impetus for vouchers that once and for all could slay this out-of-control, inefficient, strangling monopoly.